Birthing, Babies and Beyond: Month 5

Before Motherhood, I worried about all kinds of things that I now look back at and have to chuckle about. If I left the house I wanted to look nice, have my hair done, and wear picture perfect make-up. I’d go shopping for cute new outfits or get my nails done on a bi-weekly basis. I’m not really sure why I put so much effort in looking good for other people. Now days I’m lucky if I have time to dry my hair, apply make-up or have an outfit that matches. My nails are cut short and unpolished, my hair is un-cut and un-dyed, my pants are practically falling off my body because they are too big yet I have no desire to go shopping for new clothes. My purpose in life isn’t to gussy up and look gorgeous, it’s to be a fantastic Mother and Wife. Every day I throw myself together in a hurry so that I can spend more time with my son. It’s hard to explain, but every moment with him is precious. I know that someday I’ll be done nursing him and he won’t need me for feedings anymore and then someday he will walk and he won’t need me to carry him anymore and so on. Life is too short to spend being self-absorbed.

I can’t quite explain the natural high I get when I get off of work. Pre-Wyatt I just wanted to leave work so that I could lay on the couch, watch tv, nap, whatever. Now I anticipate every day at 4:00 because I know that I’m going home to be with my son. When I walk in the door the very first thing I do is hold him, give him a big hug and tell him how much I love him. It’s really amazing how much your life changes when you become a parent. Then I love to spend my evenings talking, feeding and playing with Wyatt. Around 7:30-8 Daddy gets his turn to spend quality man-time with Wyatt as he gives him his bath, bottle, and rocks him to sleep. At this time I catch up on chores, diaper laundry and if I’m lucky, I get to watch a half hour of tv before going to bed. This is now my life and you know what? I love it.

My shopping habits have definitely changed since becoming a parent. I desperately need clothes that fit but I’m really not interested in shopping for myself. If I do shop, I shop on-line and I’m always browsing for baby items. Luckily, If I believe that Wyatt needs something, I’ll put my Mom to work to do some research for me. I remember not caring about baby stuff at all (even when I was pregnant) but now I find myself getting caught up on things like finding the perfect sippy cup. There is just so much to think about in a sippy cup!

Some cups leak, some have tops that pop off arbitrarily, some have awkward handles and some have a fast (or slow) flow. It’s like I’m Goldy Locks trying to find the perfect porridge; the one that is just right. So now my simple browsing for baby items turned into an obsession to find the perfect item. Because I don’t spend much time away from the baby, it might take me weeks to research and pick out the perfect sippy cup. I could care less about what I look like or what I put into my body but when it comes to Wyatt I can be a bit obsessive. Again, I have my Mom there to support my habit by doing copious amounts of research on random baby items and helping make suggestions on what I should purchase.

My baby is five months old and already has a big personality. He talks, smiles, yells and constantly interacts with people around him. We can even put him in the Bjorn while we walk around Target and he will smile and talk to random strangers, sometimes holding complete conversations with them (all in baby babble language, of course). What I’ve learned from him is that he’s a happy baby, loves to smile, is quite determined, can be stubborn, and loves being around people. He loves his Bjorn carrier because he enjoys meeting new faces and seeing the world around him. He’s also extremely playful. He learned how to jump in his jumparoo and literally over the course of 24 hours he was jumping like a mad man. Depending on his mood, he Is very rough and full of energy and I think he’s going to jump through the floor. Other times he’s very dainty like a dancer who prances around on his tip toes. He’s mainly concerned with jumping but every now and then he’ll stop jumping for a moment and examine a toy on his jumparoo. When he’s in a good mood, we can put him in the jumparoo for 45 minutes. The best time to do this is when we are preparing dinner. He can jump while I’m cooking and I can still watch over him and interact with him while I’m cooking.

The other thing that Wyatt likes to do while in the kitchen is eat and boy, does that baby like to eat! Wyatt received a high chair from us for Christmas this year and it has gotten some good use out of it. After Wyatt’s 4 month appointment, we got the go-ahead to introduce solids and so we started experimenting. After my shower baby-food eating game, I made a promise to my (un)born son that I would try every food that I was then going to give to him. I remember tasting the ham with ham gravy in a jar and the thought still gives me the heebie-jeebies! So I bought a baby cookbook and have been learning how to prepare fresh foods that are suitable for a 4+ month old. Wyatt’s very first food was avocado. I mashed it up and thinned in out. At first he really wasn’t sure how to eat it. It went in…and came back out. He didn’t seem to mind it but he didn’t love it either. The next food we introduced was oatmeal. He did ok with the oatmeal and slowly learned to not push all of the food out of his mouth. We then started adding a small serving of bananas with his oatmeal. He seemed to like the sweetness of the bananas. Then we tried sweet potatoes. I baked two organic sweet potatoes and we had tried those; it was a big hit! He absolutely LOVED sweet potatoes…couldn’t get enough! He kept leaping out of the chair towards the spoon with his mouth wide open. He then would sometimes make this incredibly cute yum-yum noise as the spoon entered his mouth. He even yelled at Glen because he didn’t feel that Glen was feeding him fast enough. It was hilarious to watch. I was in tears because I was laughing so hard. He did the same thing with the squash. I’m pretty confident in saying that my son is a good eater.

We celebrated our first Christmas as a family of three. The weekend before Christmas was spent at my Mom’s house. She had a big celebration with a lot of people. It was so nice catching up with my cousins as well as my Aunt, sisters & brothers. Wyatt met Santa and got some small toys and clothes. His favorite gift was probably his Cloud-B turtle that light up starts and moons on the ceiling. He stares at it when we’re rocking him at night. The next weekend we celebrated Christmas at my Dad’s house. Wyatt got some books, some outfits, some toys and some feeding supplies. His favorite toy there was probably his laugh & learn puppy. He stares at the blinking lights and likes to listen to the music. He was pretty good at unwrapping his gifts and he really loved pulling the bows off of the gifts and sticking them into his mouth. His great Grandma and Grandpa got him his very first teddy bear and a tricycle. It’s pretty cool but we’ll have to put it away for a few years until Wyatt is ready to ride it. Wyatt helped my Dad bake chocolate chip cookies, aka, he slobbered on the wooden mixing spoon. He was all smiles on Christmas morning and it made for some cute pictures. He had a great first Christmas and I can’t thank my family enough for being so generous to us.

On New Years Eve we stopped by Shea & Emily’s house. We didn’t make it to midnight but it was nice to get out of the house. Wyatt was exceptionally pleasant while we were there. We came home and put Wyatt to bed then stayed up long enough to welcome the new year. It made me a little sad to think that my baby was born last year; these last few months went by way too fast.

As for Glen and I we are doing better at the end of this month than we have been. Glen is finally working more locally and it’s a huge relief to have him around. Glen is looking into starting a country band or recording some country songs in the future. When he has any time, he usually plays guitar in the basement and writes music. He’s currently trying to volunteer for weekend work so that we can add some insulation to our attic. When he’s not doing any of the above, he’s working on organizing our garage and hopefully someday we will be able to walk out there without tripping over random items.

I’m looking into creating a small studio for my photography and hope to have something put together by March. I’ll be looking for interested clients, preferably children, to come over and be photographed as I experiment with lighting in my new in-home studio. I feel comfortable working with natural light but am new to a studio setting. It’ll be fun to play around with that this winter. I packed away my size 8 pants and have now graduated back to size six and I can finally button up my work shirts so I’ve dug those out of the closet as well. I’ve also started to do some light cardio at my work gym and I continue to try to eat well although the delicious bowl full of chocolate on my Island makes it hard to do so. I’ve also been watching the show True Blood when I have the opportunity to watch television. I can typically watch an episode every other night after Wyatt goes to bed.

We got a food saver for Christmas from my Dad & Wendy and we plan on buying meat in bulk and freezing it to save money. God knows we’ll need to look for any cost savings when Wyatt attends daycare full time. We are definitely excited to get Wyatt into daycare because we believe it’ll be good for him since he’s so social but the expense will definitely hurt our wallets.

That's it for this month!

Month 3 Milestones

· Experiments with his voice, makes loud (happy) squealing noises

· Rolls over, back to belly

· Rolls from Side to side and all the way over, tumbling across the floor

· Increased independence & playfulness

· Increased alertness during the day-2 long naps and one cat nap

· Almost sleeping through the night

· Discovered feet and hands. Pulls socks off and puts feet in mouth

· Lifts legs for diaper changes

· Holds bottle

. Belly laughs

· Sits up unassisted briefly (5 seconds max)
. Responds to name

Personality Traits

· Loves to be held

· Loves to be talked to

· Likes to reach out and touch faces and pet the dog

·         Likes to be tickled
.         Likes singing and peek-a-boo
.         Likes to jump in his jumparoo

· Likes Sweet potatoes and squash

· Kicks and coos during bath time. Grasps rubber ducks and wash cloths in the tub

· Constantly likes to communicate by talking or cooing. Responds to smiling and laughing

Favorite Moments:
.        Opening gifts by first pulling off the bow and placing it in his mouth
.        Belly laughs over watching the dog play
.        Celebrating Wyatt's first Christmas

Wyatt's First Christmas